The present invention relates sheet protectors for holding sheet material such a paper and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,866 assigned to Avery Dennison Corporation of Pasadena, Calif., described conventional fabrication techniques for sheet protectors, which patent in its entirety is incorporated herein by reference.
A conventional sheet protector 50 for holding a piece of sheet material 52 is shown in FIG. 1. The sheet protector 50 includes a front panel 54 and a back panel 56 that are configured to form a pocket 58 with an opening 60. The pocket 58 and the opening 60 have equal widths indicated by reference alpha WO. The piece of paper 52 has a width WS that is slightly less than the width WO of the opening 60. For example, for a standard piece of paper having a width of 8½ inches, the width WO of the opening 60 is typically about 8 11/16 inches. Accordingly, the width WO of the opening 60 is only about 3/16 inch larger than the width WS of the paper 52, or only about 3/32 inch on either side of the paper 52 when received within the pocket 58. In other words, the width WO of the opening 60 is about 2.2% larger than the width WS of the paper 52.
To insert the paper 52 into the sheet protector 50, a person needs to align the leading edge of the paper 52 with the opening 60 and then to urge the paper 52 into the pocket 58. If the leading edge of the paper 52 is not aligned within the 3/16 tolerance, then the paper 52 will bind with one of the ends of the opening 60. Accordingly, care needs to be taken to ensure alignment of the paper 52 and the opening 60 in an otherwise relatively simple operation.
Accordingly, there is a need for a sheet protector that allows a relatively large degree of tolerance between the width of the opening of the pocket and the size of the sheet material being inserted into the pocket. The present invention satisfies this need.